Cushman & Wakefield Takes Historic Leap Forward

The new era for Cushman & Wakefield has begun, with the completion of its merger with DTZ. The new Cushman & Wakefield is now one of the largest commercial real estate services firms in the world with more than $5 billion in revenue and 4.3 million square feet under management.

The merger, announced in early May, creates the second largest real estate services firm behind CBRE and ahead of JLL with about 43,000 employees and $191 billion in transaction value.

Cushman & Wakefield is being led by Chairman & CEO Brett White, a former CBRE CEO, and Global President Tod Lickerman, who had been the global CEO of DTZ. The combined company is majority owned by an investor group led by TPG, PAG Asia Capital and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. It is the same investment group that bought DTZ from Australia-based UGL Ltd., for $1.14 billion in November 2014 and soon after acquired Cassidy Turley and rebranded it as DTZ.

Brett White

The moves made by Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ and the investment group are emblematic of the consolidation that has been shaking up the CRE world for the last several years, particularly as more multinational clients seek to get their services from one large firm rather than multiple companies.

The privately-held property services firm’s owners, the Agnelli family and its investment arm, Exor SpA, had hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley earlier this year to begin seeking bids for the company. Exor and the Agnellis owned 81 percent of Cushman & Wakefield and the employees owned the rest of the firm before the sale.

White, who is an investor in the TPG consortium, acknowledged that the merger of two major real estate services firms like Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ is “a game-changing event in commercial real estate.”

Industry analysts were not surprised that White, who left CBRE in 2012, re-emerged on the scene as an investor in TPG and expected him to take a leadership role as the consortium began acquiring more companies to build out DTZ into a more global company. White had helped CBRE through several major milestones, including taking it public in 2004 and three large acquisitions – Insignia/ESG Inc., in 2003, Trammel Crow Co. in 2006 and ING REIM in 2011. Now he is helping the TPG investment group grow the new Cushman & Wakefield as well.

“Both legacy firms had been aggressively growing their respective platforms and deepening their reach into the market with new acquisitions and talent,” White said in a prepared statement. “Now we have the opportunity to see these ambitions come together – capturing the momentum in the market and clearly claiming our position at the top of the industry.”

In his statement, Lickerman suggested the industry should expect more activity from Cushman & Wakefield.

“The completion of the merger is a historic leap forward, but it isn’t the end of our journey,” he said in his prepared statement. “Today is an important milestone that propels us into a future rich with opportunity for our clients, our people, and our company.”

David Bonderman, TPG founding partner, was even more blunt.

“The formation of the new Cushman & Wakefield is the next chapter in the most exciting growth story in the real estate industry,” he said in a prepared statement. “TPG is excited to partner with Brett and his management team as they continue to grow the business.”

“We’ve drawn from the legacy firms and from the industry to put in place the best talent and best leadership possible,” Stettinius said in a prepared statement. “We have the right platform and right people sharing our client-centric culture and a strong desire to aggressively grow our business in the Americas.”

The company also unveiled a new logo that it said is “reflecting the legacy of a trusted global brand, drawing on a wider history and positioning the firm for the future.”